GMC doctors find HEART of STONE on autopsy of a 50-year old- case report
Goa: While conducting an autopsy on a 50-year-old man one of the Goa Medical College (GMC) doctors discovered massive calcification in the heart of the man that virtually seemed as if it had turned into stone.
The autopsy was conducted on the body of the unidentified man who was found dead near South Goa park. One of the junior residents cum second-year PG medicos of Goa Medical College, Dr. Bharat Sreekumar from the department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology conducted the autopsy.
During the autopsy, he identified that the heart turned Stoney as the left ventricle showed massive endocardial (the innermost layer of the heart) calcification which caused restrictive cardiomyopathy. This is a condition where the complete filling of the ventricles are compromised. Dr.Bharat added that the heart was so hard as if it has turned into completely stone. As soon as he found the rare finding, after consulting with his seniors in the department, he conducted the basic histopathological study on the portion of the heart with the help of the pathology department in GMC. Histopathology is a technique wherein the tissues were examined under a microscopic vision in a bid to study the manifestation of a disease.
After the examination, the doctor confirmed that the man's heart had turned to stony consistency due to massive calcification of endocardium, as suspected. Dr. Bharat told Medical Dialogues that Endomyocardial fibrosis or EMF is not a rare medical condition but endocardial calcification is definitely a rare manifestation. It is ome of the causes of restrictive cardiomyopathy. But what is different about this case is that endocardial calcification was a prominent stand-alone pathology in relation to very minimal myocardial fibrosis.
Calcification also causes kidney stones. Heart-hardening due to endomyocardial fibrosis (scarring of heart tissue) is quite common in India ans tropical countries, but in that case, calcification occurred simultaneously with fibrosis. According to Dr. Bharat in this particular case, minimal fibrosis was identified while there was a massive calcification and such a condition is rarely documented in medical history. " We have not seen any disease yet which will lead to such a medical condition", said the doctor.
He added," EMF is different than endocardial calcification but there is a general tendency that calcification is always attributed as a predisposition of endomyocardial fibrosis."
Hence, the doctor was encouraged to present it at the National conference of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine. "The etiology and pathophysiology causing this is not really understood and still remains a mystery", added the doctor.
The doctor has conducted the basic Histopathology, he stated, " we don't know which kind of calcium it is. If we get to identify its type, we might know where it had originated from."
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